FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT HEALTH PLAN - PAGE 2

The issue has been overshadowed so far by the debate over government spending, but congressional analysts warn that President Clinton's health care reform plan could contribute to a fundamental restructuring of the U.S. work force. According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office, the Clinton plan could widen the existing divide between professional and unskilled workers, accelerate the trend toward corporate "outsourcing" of work to independent contractors, and create new incentives for small businesses to stay small and keep wages low. The CBO analysis, while not intended as an attack on the Clinton plan, could provide new ammunition to congressional opponents who hope to stop the White House from rewriting the rules governing a sector that accounts for one-seventh of the nation's economy.

For anyone who thinks the government will run a cost-efficient public health plan consider this. Lockheed Martin received a $4.9 million stimulus grant to paint the hangar floors at Edwards Air Force Base. This project created "or saved" all of 2.2 jobs. As reported last week, the stimulus has created or saved only approximately 30,000 jobs -- not the ridiculous 3.5 million promised. Anyone who still believes anything this government says (excluding the liberal media) is just plain foolish.

Bethlehem Area Public Library Trustees last night requested that library Director Jack Berk ask city officials if the library can remain in the city's health plan, at least for a while. City officials last month said that since library employees are not city employees, they should not be participants in the city's health plan. Berk said last night, however, that the process of establishing a new health plan takes time. There is not enough time to have a new plan in place by the beginning of the new year, he said.

A national health plan has to move beyond cost-cutting to training more humanitarian doctors, finding out what really works in medicine and improving health for all Americans, a former surgeon general said. "Health care is not the same thing as health," said Dr. C. Everett Koop, who spoke last night to 800 people at Cedar Crest College's Lees Hall. "Our vision for health care has to match a vision for a healthy society." Koop, 77, spoke on "The Ethical Imperative of Health Care Reform" in a program sponsored by The Ethics Institute, a cooperative venture between Lehigh Valley Hospital and Cedar Crest College.

Ensuring basic medical care for the poor and under-insured is a serious problem facing the health-care industry in America, but national health insurance is not the cure, a national analyst said yesterday. "I'm very opposed to a national health plan of a socialized nature because it will bring more problems than it will solve," Jack A. Meyer said at a press conference at the Hotel Bethlehem last night. "I think it would blanket us with a sea of regulations, national budgets, negotiated fees between the government and doctors, and strikes," he said.

The Bethlehem Health Bureau was notified Friday that the state has approved a countywide health department for Northampton County, a move that could eventually phase out city-run public health services. Bethlehem, which for years has been pushing for a regional public health service, will have representation on the newly formed county health board, if County Council approves its formation at a meeting Sept. 16. However, Bethlehem remains steadfast in its desire to see that the same level of services continues.

Plans for a regional health department in the Lehigh Valley could be in jeopardy if Allentown officials are not given more say in the makeup of the department's board. Mayor Ed Pawlowski said that because Allentown already has a health department and will provide much of the infrastructure and funding for the regional entity, the city should have at least one representative on the proposed five-member board. "We have been at a standstill on this for months because we haven't been able to come to a consensus on who is going to be on this board," Pawlowski said, referring to dealings with Lehigh County officials.

For Gov. Ed Rendell, the two numbers that will matter most this spring are 102 and 26. That's how many votes he'll need in the 203-member state House and 50-member Senate to extend health insurance coverage to 800,000 Pennsylvanians. But he hasn't made it easy on himself. Rendell has proposed a 3 percent payroll tax on 100,000 businesses unless they begin offering health care benefits to their employees. He's also seeking an unspecified increase in the state's $1.35-per-pack cigarette tax. And he wants new taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco products.

Whitehall-Coplay Education Association asked for more technology in classrooms and more power for teachers in educational decisions as it opened contract negotiations with the district School Board this week, officials said. But the association did not make a pay proposal at the Wednesday meeting, officials said. "A salary and negotiations package will be added as the negotiations proceed," said Judy Piper, chief negotiator for the teachers union. The next bargaining session is scheduled for March 12. Piper said the association is waiting for the district's decision on a proposed cooperative health plan before presenting the salary and benefits side of the contract.

Retired Whitehall-Coplay School District teachers are waiting for the school board to decide whether they will keep the benefits they retired with or be required to switch to the health plan in a contract approved last year for current teachers. The district told the retirees in a letter last month that they would be switched to the new plan this month. But the board decided to rethink the decision when 45-50 retirees showed up at a meeting Monday night to complain that the new plan would require them to pay premiums they didn't have before, as well as higher deductibles and increased co-payments for medicines.